


A Shove in the Right Direction

by Aria_Lerendeair



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: And love it, And they know it, Because she's the one in charge, Every single second of it, Get together fic, Multi, Newton has lots of self image issues, She brings her boys together, So he runs away, So she can have them both, Vanessa is a BAMF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-18
Updated: 2013-11-18
Packaged: 2018-01-01 22:53:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1049527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aria_Lerendeair/pseuds/Aria_Lerendeair
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After it is all over, Newt leaves before Hermann can leave him.  He knows what Hermann will do, go be with his perfect, beautiful wife and live happily in Berlin for the rest of his life.  He isn't expecting how much it hurts.  He also isn't expecting Vanessa, Hermann's wife to come find him and demand that he come home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Shove in the Right Direction

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aunt_zelda](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aunt_zelda/gifts).



  
  
  
  
_***“When you drift with someone...you feel like there’s nothing to talk about...I just hope that I regret all the things that I never said out there.”***_  
  
  
  
  
  
The Shatterdome is quiet now.  Newt is standing in the empty and quiet labs, staring at the chalkboards still filled with Hermann’s scribbles.  His head is pounding, but it’s easy to ignore now that everything is quiet.  It would be dawn soon.  Everyone would crawl out of bed after too little sleep and too much celebration to begin the end of an era.  The end of the PPDC.  There was no need for any of them anymore.    
  
He rolled up his sleeves and removed his tie.  He had a couple of hours to straighten the rest of his things in the lab.  Newt had signed up for the first plane out of Hong Kong that he could get.  Maybe, maybe if he ran far enough, he wouldn’t have to think about the Drift.  About what he’d seen in Hermann’s mind and what Hermann had seen in his.  

It was best not to think about the images of Hermann’s wife, Vanessa, the two of them laughing and smiling together as they graduated together, bought their first house together, were married.  Newt fought a smile.  Hermann was so happy with her.  He would be happy again.  He’d never been in the picture and had never had a chance to be.  Hoping for that had only led to heartache.  Again.    
  
He pushed the papers on his desk away from him and collapsed onto the stool in front of his desk again.  The PPDC would quarantine all of his samples, he had no doubt.  No point in packing them up.  His research, all of it, was stored on his private server, not that the PPDC knew that.  There was very little he would actually need to take with him.  

Newt pushed himself away from his desk and began to collect the small things he wanted to bring with him.  The notebook that contained the designs for his next, and last, five tattoos.  Otachi, Leatherback, Scunner, Raiju and the only category five to ever exist.  Slattern.  He knew exactly where each of them would go.  Otachi would go on his back.  The place of honor he had been saving for when it felt right.    
  
Hermann had seen them all in the Drift.  His body decorated with Kaiju.  To make them tangible.  To make them real.  Newt freezes for a moment as he’s swept away in the memory of his first tattoo.  Fighting down tears.  What was he doing, thinking about this?  Two Jaegers, two crews had died because he had drifted with a Kaiju.  He should have every single tattoo burned off his skin.    
  
He finished packing up his desk and stared down at the small laptop bag in his hands.  Was he truly taking so little?  Newt looked around the lab that had been his home for the past decade.  At the chalkboards, looming high and impressive as always in the back of the room.  At the line that they had drawn in their first year together, splitting the room in half, crossed only when they wanted to piss each other off.    
  
Newt remembered it all through two sets of memories.  From his eyes, enjoying making Hermann upset, pushing each and every single one of his buttons.  Making him frustrated and annoyed, because it was worth it to see the flush of color in Hermann’s pale cheeks.  Seeing the frown when he waxed poetic about the latest Kaiju appearance.  Eventually, the bickering had become more relaxing than tense, habit after so many years.  They were too different not to annoy each other, but they knew better than to try and get along.    
  
He remembered Hermann’s panic at finding him, laying catatonic after his first drift.  Newt bit his lip as the memories washed over him, the horror that had filled Hermann at the message he had left on the stupid recorder.  The determination that had filled Hermann when Pentecost had said he would need to Drift again, that this time, Newt would not do it alone.    
  
Newt blinked the memories away and looked back across the lab.  He walked to the chalkboard and picked up one of the spare pieces that had grown too small for Hermann to easily hold.  He rolled it in his palm for a long moment before smiling and writing a short message.  ‘Don’t forget, we’re rockstars now!’  He put the chalk down again and stared at it.  Hermann had smelled like chalk.  Chalk and rain when they had hugged, not once, but twice in the command center.  It would be too easy to get used to that smell.  Not that he would have a chance.

He stepped back over the line separating his side from Hermann’s and looked over the lab one last time.  Nothing he could take with him.  No point in trying.  Hermann would go back to his beautiful wife and white-picket fence house in Germany.  He would forget the last ten years and move on with his life.  Newt could already feel the memories of Vanessa swelling in his mind.  She was beautiful.  So beautiful.  Smiling, laughing at a joke in German, wrapping her arms around Hermann, kissing him and loving him with every inch of her soul.  How could he have ever hoped for anything more when Hermann had someone like her waiting at home for him?  
  
That was the terrible thing.  Hermann knew.  Now he knew.  All of it.  His stupid, secret desires.  How much he wished, he wanted, always wanting what he could never have.  He’d been so desperate to prove they were drift compatible, that they fit together that he had never considered everything that Hermann would now be able to see.  All of it.  No place left to hide now.  Every time his eyes had strayed where they should not have, when he had tried to imagine Hermann looking back, perhaps the two of them meeting in the middle?  
  
That was worse than his own memories.  Was the knowledge that Hermann had looked.  Had watched him bend over in his skinny jeans, appreciating his ass and thighs.  Hermann had wanted, and had nearly torn himself apart with guilt when he had admitted it.  Newt picked up the voice recorder on his desk and threw it as hard as he could at the wall.  It shattered and fell to pieces on the floor.  It was his fault.  He’d made Hermann think those things.  Want those things.  When he was happily married.  Newt knew he was going to be sick.    
  
He managed to stumble back to his quarters, emptying his stomach as quietly as he could.  No need to wake the rest of the Shatterdome.  He had to get out.  He had to get away before Hermann looked at him, pitied him for what he felt, what they had both felt but could never act on.  He tore apart the room in minutes, filling two duffel bags and then staring at the empty stone walls.  At least...at least they were not sharing a room like they had been in Alaska.  At least he could pack in peace.    
  
And at the very least, he could sit here and cry on his own without risking waking someone up.  Newt looked at the three bags by the floor.  Ten years and that was all he had to show for it?  A harsh laugh escaped his throat and he laughed until he cried, falling back on the bed to curl around a pillow.  It didn’t matter.  None of it mattered.    
  
  
  
  
  
  
 _***“When you drift with someone...you feel like there’s nothing to talk about...I just hope that I regret all the things that I never said out there.”***_  
  
  
  
  
  
  
“Newton!  Newton, we must talk.  I for one, am amazed that you have managed to rise before me, however, even you must have your days, I am certain and-”  Hermann stopped at the entrance of the lab, looking at the men as they pushed the last Kaiju sample in it’s large container out of the room.  The two remaining men were steadily packing file after file away into boxes.    
  
“Ah, Doctor Gottlieb.  We were about to come-”  
  
“Where is Doctor Geizler?  He will not be pleased that you have moved his samples without his permission.”  He demanded, stepping forward towards the men at Newton’s desk.  “That is his research, leave it be.”    
  
“Doctor Geizler left this morning.  Everything here has been confiscated by the PPDC.”  The corporal said with a salute, as his partner finished gathering the last of his papers.  “If you need anything else sir…?”    
  
Hermann stared at the corporal and shook his head, planting his cane firmly on the ground so his hand did not shake.  “No.  Dismissed.”  He turned away from the two men and the now nearly empty half of the lab.  The comforting shape of the chalkboards still loomed against the wall and he advanced towards them.  Newton had left?  He drew closer to the chalkboards and saw that someone had written something.    
  
He wrinkled his nose, but his heart lightened at the thought that Newton had left him a message.  Even if it was on his blackboard.  The five words stared back at him, clearly written in an unsteady hand.  ‘Don’t forget, we’re rockstars now!’  

The words mocked him.  Despite them, despite the Drift, despite everything, Newton was gone.  Gone with no information on how he could be contacted again.  Unlikely that he would be able to disappear completely, but he would remain a far, far distance from Germany.  From home.  From HIM.  Hermann settled down in his chair at the front of his desk and began to write.  He would need to inform Vanessa that he was coming home.  

It took him four tries to write the email.  His hands shook so hard that his initial attempts were gibberish.  Hermann forced himself to slow, to type out an email that would be coherent and perhaps even happy.  He was going home.  But when he looked up at the empty half of the lab, the half that had been emptied without a goodbye, without a word, and without a single Kaiju part being thrown over a now-unnecessary line, he could not bring himself to be happy.    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 _***“When you drift with someone...you feel like there’s nothing to talk about...I just hope that I regret all the things that I never said out there.”***_  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Newt rolled out of bed as his doorbell rang for the fourth time in quick succession.  He hissed as he stretched too quickly and pulled at his newest tattoo.  Sucking in a deep breath, he waited for the flare of pain to fade as he pulled on jeans.  Whoever it was could deal with the fact that it hurt to put a shirt on at the moment.  

“Hold your shit, I’m coming!”  He shouted as the doorbell went off again.  He padded to the front door and put on his glasses, new ones that didn’t have the cracks his old pair had.  He kept them, because he was a sentimental bastard, on his desk.  A reminder.  Newt pushed his fingers through his hair and huffed.  “It’s ten in the morning, what the hell man.”  He muttered, opening the door and freezing.    
  
“Hello Newton.”    
  
Newt flexed his fingers around the door and nearly slammed it in her face.  He knew her, but didn’t know her.  He knew what she looked like on her wedding day, smiling and radiant with happiness, what she looked like as she stepped over the door of their new home, her hand held out for him, but not him.  For Hermann.  “What are you doing here Vanessa?”    
  
Her eyes widened for a moment before she gave a pleased smile.  “So you do know of me.  I had wondered, if your drift was the same in that manner.  Hermann talks so little of it.”    
  
His hand shook and Newt was glad for the firm grip he had on the door.  He was also very, very aware that Vanessa’s eyes had dropped to his arms and chest, eyeing each of his tattoos, her eyes trailing all the way to the waistband of his jeans, where a few of the tattoos extended to.  “Of course I know you, I was in his head.”    
  
“Apparently not deeply enough.”  She tossed her hair over her shoulder and looked back down the hallway.  “Will you allow me in, or we will continue to have this conversation in your doorway?”    
  
Newt wanted to slam the door in her face, but it was tempting, too tempting, to touch this small piece of Hermann.  A piece he had never known until they had drifted.  He stepped back and let her move past him.  The scent of chalk drifted past him and he felt his stomach wrench at the familiar smell.  He shut the door behind her and turned to face her, only to find her looking at the papers he had strewn out all over the coffee table.    
  
“Vanessa.  Why are you here?”  Newt wanted to cross his arms and glare at her, but she was having none of it.  She stepped closer to him, examining the tattoos on his arms.    
  
“They are so beautiful.  Have you had one artist do them all?”  She reached out to touch them, her fingertips gentle and careful.  

Newt shuddered.  It had been a long time since someone had touched him like that.  He pulled away and cleared his throat.  “For most of them.  The newer ones were done by someone more local.”    
  
“I see.”  Vanessa spoke quietly, her fingers staying in mid air before drifting to stay at her sides.  “May I ask you a question Newton?”  

His customary order of making sure someone called him Newt instead of Newton or Dr. Geizler were usually ignored, except the earnestness on Vanessa’s face was throwing him off.  “Uh.  Sure.  You gotta answer mine though.”    
  
“Of course, of course.”  Vanessa moved further into the apartment, moving several cushions aside to make room for herself to sit.  “Will you sit down with me Newton?”    
  
“Call me Newt.”  Newt shot back.  He was not going to be able to get through an entire conversation with her if she kept calling him Newton.    
  
She gave another pleased smile.  “Newt.  Of course.  Please sit with me.”  She waited until he had settled on the arm of the chair across from him before clasping her hands in her lap.  “I am here, because my husband is afraid to be.”  

Newt shook his head and sighed. "Look, if this is about my leaving-"

"In part." Vanessa said, her lips curled in a smile. "You left too quickly. Hermann was hurt when he discovered you gone without a word. He tries not to show it, but I can see it in him. He misses you."

Newt wanted to laugh. Three months after he had left and now he was hearing this?  "He will get over it. He has you, after all."

Vanessa watched Newt carefully. It was easy to see the same pain within them both. "I do not believe that you 'get over' someone else being in your head and memories Newt. The fact that you are here, on the opposite side of the world from us, shows that."

"Yeah, well. I didn't have a wife and a white picket fence to come home to." He tossed back at her, sighing as he flopped back onto the couch.  Newt immediately hissed in pain as he hit his back and sat forward again.    
  
Vanessa was at his side in an instant, kneeling next to him.  “Are you all right?”  She reached out to touch his arm and squeezed gently.  “Can I get you something for the pain?”    
  
Newt shook his head.  “I’ll be fine.  Just a new tattoo.”    
  
She nodded and rubbed his arm, over Yamarashi.  “They’re beautiful.  Your tattoos.”  

“Glad you think so.  Your husband certainly hates them.”  Newt pulled his arm away from her after a long moment.    
  
“He did not like them until he understood.  Now, they are one of the most beautiful things in the world to him.”  Vanessa said, reaching out to touch Newton again.  She curled her hand slowly over his arm and tugged until he looked at her.    
  
Two eye colors, just like her husband.  One ringed in red, the other a beautiful hazel color.  She raised her hand to his left cheekbone and touched, stroked over his cheek.  Vanessa felt him flinch, but did not let him pull away.  “You do have one you know.  A white picket fence.  A home.  If you want one.”   
  
Newt pulled away from her, from her soft hands and beautiful smile.  He knew how to touch her to make her scream, he knew terrible things one should not know about about man’s wife.  “I’m not going to let the two of you pity me.”  Newt turned away from her and started to walk towards the kitchen when he heard her gasp.  He froze.  The tattoo.  He’d forgotten.     
  
“Newt…”    
  
He hunched his shoulders and hurried towards the kitchen.  He knew what she saw.  It was finally finished.  Over thirty full hours in a tattoo artists chair.  They’d finished the last of the shading and coloring the night before last.  Otachi, the only Kaiju he had seen up close and personal, took up the majority of his back, the only tattoo rendered as close to real as the artist could get it.  Around the edge were a series of vignettes ringing Otachi.  Gipsy Danger fighting Leatherback.  Raiju and Scunner emerging from the Breach.  Striker Eureka squaring off against Slattern, the only class five ever.  The remaining skin had been decorated with kanji, spelling out the names of the pilots that fell after his Drift.  Deaths he was responsible for.  

Newt sucked in a breath and hunched his shoulders. “Go home Vanessa.  Go back to Hermann.  He misses you, I’m sure.”    
  
“He doesn’t know I am here.”  Vanessa said, standing up from the couch.  “He talks about you.  When he sleeps.  Hermann doesn’t know what you saw in the Drift, but whatever it was made you run.  He regrets that.  Deeply.”    
  
“Vanessa-”  
  
“Listen to me, Newt.  Please.”  Vanessa walked over to where Newton was standing with his back to her, the magnificent tattoo on his back on full display.  “What did you see that made you run this far away from him?”    
  
Newt tightened his grip on the counter.  “You.”    
  
“Me?”  Vanessa’s eyes widened in surprise and she stopped.    
  
“Yeah.”  He let out a harsh laugh.  “You were what he thought about.  I saw so much more than I ever should have.  I saw him in school, as a child, I saw him meet you, fall in love with you, marry you, and I…”  Newt cut himself off before he said anything else.  He’d known then that it was hopeless, and always would be.  That feeling anything for Hermann was a pointless exercise.    
  
She stopped behind Newton and put her hands on his shoulders, leaning closer to press her face to the nape of his neck.  “And you…?”    
  
Newt shuddered, but didn’t try to pull away again.  “I was him for those memories.  Which meant he’d seen mine.  He’d seen what I wanted, and wished to have.  He’d seen all of it.”  He swallowed.  “And he felt so guilty Vanessa.  Because he wanted it too.  I could feel his guilt.”  He chuckled and turned to face her.  “So I did what any good mathematician would do.  I removed myself from the equation.”    
  
Vanessa dropped her hands from Newton’s shoulders and instead wrapped her arms around his stomach, careful not to press tightly against his back.  “Do you know why he felt guilty Newt?  Did you stay in his mind long enough to understand?”    
  
“Didn’t seem to be a point in it.”  Newt shrugged, trying to ignore how soft Vanessa’s hands were, pressed against his stomach.  “Saw what I needed to.”    
  
“No, you didn’t.”  Vanessa gave a small sigh.  “Newt, eight years ago, Hermann came home for a small vacation.  He was very upset with himself.  It took me two days to get him to admit to why.”  She pressed a gentle kiss to Newt’s shoulder and held on when he tried to pull away again.  “He told me about you Newt.  How crazy you drove him, how you bothered him, every piece of you.  The way you talked, the way you left Kaiju remains everywhere, the way you teased him, your music, all of it.”    
  
When Newt didn’t respond, Vanessa took a slow breath.  “It was so easy to see Newt.  He loves you.  You are the other half of his mind.  The half he didn’t know was missing until he found it.”  She felt Newt tense under her and smiled.  “Hermann has not been himself since you left.  He will say something, then turn, almost as though he is ready to argue, only to realize there is no one there to argue with.”    
  
Newt felt a small noise escape his throat and he clenched his eyes shut.  This didn’t matter.  None of it did.  He had to stop thinking about this.  He had to.  “Please...please stop.”    
  
“You have a piece of his heart Newt.  Won’t you come back to show him he hasn’t lost it?”  She asked, stroking the soft skin under her fingertips.  Vanessa let her hand trail up Newt’s chest to his heart, to press against it.  “Please Newt.  Come home.”    
  
“What about you?”  He fought to get the words out, to think.  It was everything he wanted, being handed to him on a silver platter.  There had to be a catch.  There was always a catch.    
  
Vanessa smiled and pressed in close to Newt’s back, whispering against his neck.  “I’m the bow that ties you two together.  There’s Jaeger pilots that have done that.  Three instead of two.  Together.”    
  
Newt let a sob break free before he pressed a hand to his lips.  “You don’t, you can’t want this.  You can’t.”    
  
Letting out a small sigh, Vanessa tugged Newt until he was facing her.  She smiled at him.  She dropped her fingers to his chest and stroked along the delicate lines of each tattoo.  “You say you felt his guilt.  Do you know he didn’t actually feel guilty for what he felt for you?  He felt guilty that I was not there to help bring you two together.”    
  
“Wh-what?”  Newt swallowed and stared down at her.  Vanessa was a little shorter than him, but not by much.  She was all curves and temptation, pressed into him like this.    
  
“Newt.  He needs you.  He wants you to come home.  I need you.  Hermann is missing the other half of himself.  And I…”  Vanessa let her fingers trail lower, tracing over the design of another kaiju.  “I’d like to get to know the man my husband fell in love with.  Touch him, kiss him, love him.”    
  
Newt shivered as Vanessa trailed a finger along the waist of the jeans he had thrown on.  His erection was straining against his jeans he he flushed, looking away from her.  Damnit, how did he end up in situations like this?  
  
“Come home Newt.  Please.  Please.”  Vanessa whispered, pulling away just enough to look up at him, his eyes so like her husbands.  Sad, wanting her to make it better.  Needing her to be the glue between two magnets.    
  
He looked down at her and swallowed hard.  This was going to blow up in both of their faces, but...but on the chance that she was right.  On the smallest possible chance that Hermann wanted this too?  He’d take it.  “All right.”  He whispered.    
  
Vanessa stood up on her toes and kissed Newt, just a soft touch, brushing their lips together.  “Come on.  Let’s get you packed.”  She took one of his hands in hers and squeezed gently, tugging him into the other room.    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 _***“When you drift with someone...you feel like there’s nothing to talk about...I just hope that I regret all the things that I never said out there.”***_  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Newt had barely let go of Vanessa’s hand since she had grabbed and held onto one of his.  Now, here they were.  On the other side of the world, just outside a lovely house with a white picket fence.  What if Vanessa was wrong?  What if Hermann did not want him?  What if she had read everything wrong?  He’d packed up his life on a whim, on the possibility that she was right.    
  
“Newt.  It will be all right.  I promise.  Come in when you are ready.”  Vanessa leaned over and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek.  She left the car door open as she climbed out and made her way into the house.  She gave the car one last glance before opening the door.    
  
“Vanessa?  Is that you?”    
  
She turned to see Hermann walk into the hallway and grinned at him.  He had smudges of chalk on his shirt collar.  In a few steps, she was in his arms.  “Missed me Liebling?”  She whispered, leaning up for a kiss.    
  
Hermann gave a small smile and tucked some of her hair behind her ear.  “Of course.  Where did you go?  Your note lacked any detail.”    
  
Vanessa laughed.  “I have brought you a present, but I may need help bringing it into the house.  Would you help me bring it in?”  Pulling away from Hermann, she took his hand and led him outside.  Newton had climbed out of the car and was staring at the gate with his hand on it, like he had never seen such a thing before.  She smiled sadly.  She should have gone after him the minute Hermann had come home.    
  
“N-Newton?”    
  
Newt’s gaze shot up, straight to Hermann, who was staring at him with wide eyes.  Gone was the sweater vest, the stuffy old man jacket.  Just a simple white button up, with the first two buttons undone.  He swallowed and stuffed both of his hands in the pockets of his jeans.  “Hey Hermann.  Nice house dude.”    
  
Hermann looked from Vanessa, who was smiling and urging him on, to the site of Newton, still standing on the wrong side of the gate.  He made his way to the fence and opened the gate, and Newton’s eyes finally met his, scared and clearly afraid of what his reaction would be.  “Did...did Vanessa bring you here?”  

Vanessa huffed and rolled her eyes, calling out.  “Hermann, you are supposed to say that the house is nicer now that he will be moving into it.”    
  
Newt flushed and tried to glare at Vanessa over Hermann’s shoulder, but it was no use, especially when the other scientist stepped closer.  “Uh...yeah, I mean, yeah, she did.”    
  
“And are you moving in?”  Hermann narrowed his eyes, looking at Newt.  The other man was failing to meet his eyes now.  Why had Newton changed his mind after all of this time?    
  
Newt bit his lip.  “I...maybe?  Vanessa seemed to think that maybe you missed me, and I, well, I missed-”  
  
“You left.”  Hermann said, his voice quiet as he stared at Newton.  “You drifted with me, and you left Newton.”    
  
Hermann was so close, it was almost like Vanessa all over again, standing in his space, demanding answers.  Newt swallowed and nodded.  “I did.  I knew...I knew you’d seen.  And I’d seen Vanessa and I could feel how guilty I made you feel.  I’m the unwanted variable in an equation.  I took myself out.”    
  
Hermann looked over his shoulder at Vanessa, who gave him a nod and a small grin.  He turned back to Newton.  “You were never unwanted.  I just didn’t understand where you fit in the equation until now.”    
  
Newt’s head shot up and he stared at Hermann, meeting his eyes.  A familiar red-ringed pupil stared back at him and his mouth dropped open.  “Y-you think I fit?  In your equation?”  He glanced at the house, at Vanessa standing on the path leading up to the house, then back to Hermann’s eyes.  

“Newt, a piece of advice?  You’ll have to kiss him first.  Hermann is awful at making the first move.  Then I might suggest a quick tour of the house?  Starting with the bedroom?”  Vanessa teased, walking back towards the house, well aware that both her boys were staring at her.    
  
“You are the unknown factor.  I did not know my...er...equation...required an additional factor.”  Hermann felt a small smile start, echoing the one on Newton’s face.  “Until I met you.”  He said, his voice quiet.    
  
Newt laughed a little and wrapped his arms around Hermann’s shoulders.  “Shut up.  Kiss me.”  He ordered.  He tugged Hermann down for a kiss and let their lips slide together.  He felt like they were drifting again, clinging to each other while they spun through a world neither of them understood.  He shivered as Hermann’s arm came around him and pulled him closer, demanding more.    
  
Hermann looked down at Newt as he finally pulled away from the kiss.  “You will stay, won’t you Newton?”    
  
“He’d better!  I’ve been restraining myself around him for two whole days.  And not that I do not appreciate the view, but perhaps we could move this inside?”  Vanessa called from the doorway of the house, grinning at them both.    
  
“You bet.”  Newt said, a wide grin on his face as he stared up at Hermann.  “Have to see if I still remember how to push all of your buttons at once.”  

Hermann looked skyward and groaned.  Despite it, he smiled and looked back down.  Newt was already on his way into the house, and Vanessa was standing there, her arms open for him.  He walked up the path carefully, watching Newt embrace Vanessa and spin her around as he kissed her.    
  
Vanessa laughed as Newt put her down and grabbed her hand.  Hermann was climbing the steps of the porch when she pulled him down for a kiss.  She melted against him, the same as always before taking his hand.  When she pulled back, they were both smiling at her.  “Shall we mein schatz?”    
  
Newt glanced up at Hermann, then down at Vanessa and smiled.  He felt his cheeks heat up as Vanessa led the way into the house, not bothering to tell him anything more than where the bathroom was before leading them both to the bedroom.  He looked back up at Hermann when Vanessa released their hands and began to unbutton her blouse.  This time Hermann leaned in for the kiss.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 _***“When you drift with someone...you feel like there’s nothing to talk about...I just hope that I regret all the things that I never said out there.”***_  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I am so guilty of over-using that particular quote. But it was the inspiration for this whole story. The way Herc says it. Just...his voice choked up. That there really was nothing for them to talk about because they had been in each other's heads. And I love it so much. I really, really do. 
> 
> Comments and Criticisms welcome!
> 
> You can find me here: http://aria-lerendeair.tumblr.com/
> 
> You can also watch me write fics like this (and dozens of others) live! Follow me on Livestream for fics, shenanigans and a general all-around awesome time! http://new.livestream.com/accounts/7212317
> 
> Comments and criticism are welcome!


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